Pressure Ulcers

Despite their importance in patient care and their ubiquity in many chronic care settings, support services have neither performance standards nor functional criteria that can be tested against clinical outcomes.1 For this reason, selection of the appropriate support surface can be left to individual healthcare professionals and institutions on the basis of their own judgment…

Welcome to the first article in a new series on support surfaces.  The use of support surfaces is a critical component of any wound care plan, essential to prevent and treat skin breakdown. What is a Support Surface? A support surface is a specialized device that redistributes pressure to achieve optimal management of tissue loads,…

Heels are particularly vulnerable to skin breakdown due to the fact that the posterior heel is covered only by a thin layer of skin and fat. When patients lie supine, all of the pressure of their lower legs and feet rest on the heels, which have relatively poor skin perfusion and a paucity of muscle…